My top five movies of 2009 (Revised)

With the 2011 Academy Awards less than two months away, I'm prepping some kind of post for my top movies of 2011. I'm not ready to weigh in yet though, since I haven't seen 127 Hours, The Kids Are Alright or True Grit (movies that I feel will deserve to be part of the discussion). I have managed to check a lot of the contenders off my list so far, including The Social Network, which I watched again today ... and still feel is an absolutely brilliant movie. So, I'll have a post up about my top movies of 2010 between now and the Oscars.

I managed to dig through Twitter to pull up the five movies that I deemed the best five of 2009 tonight. On Dec. 30, 2009, I offered the following ranking:

1. District 9
2. Up
3. Inglourious Basterds
4. Where the Wild Things Are
5. Moon

So how do I feel about those rankings now? Well, at the time I offered this list, I had yet to see Up in the Air. I still haven't seen Hurt Locker, so I'm unable to bring that one into the fold. But anyways, here are my thoughts on the best movies of 2009.

District 9 is still my top pick. It's not often you get a movie this original, this compelling and this complete. It was a movie about aliens living under apartheid, yes, but by the end of the film I was moved by the plight of an alien who spoke zero English and only wanted to protect his son and go home. This movie was everything that Avatar wasn't. I thought James Cameron's Pocahontas-in-space epic was lame in 2009 and still think it was now.

Up stands as Pixar's greatest non-Toy Story accomplishment. I loved Wall•E, but Wall•E was a film with a stellar first half and an average second half. You would have to have a heart made of stone to not be moved by Up's wordless opening sequence. This film was a masterpiece. It exemplified everything that I love about Pixar.

Inglourious Basterds is actually the one film that hasn't held for me. I thought the movie was great fun when I saw it. Smart, creative and supported by great acting, Inglourious Basterds was something different when it premiered. Who wouldn't want to watch a band of Americans hunt down Nazis and punish Hitler? While I own this movie though, I haven't watched it since I saw it in theaters. Great movie in 2009, but it didn't grab me in 2010.

There have been a couple times over the past few weeks when I stared at my movie collection, trying to pick a movie to watch and have almost selected Where the Wild Things Are. I've passed, but it wasn't because of the quality of the film. I just haven't been in the right mood. Where the Wild Things Are struck some primal chord of childhood when I first watched it. Spike Jonze managed to capture both the joy and pain that makes up childhood. The snowball fight in the beginning of the movie exemplified just how quickly excitement can turn into fear when you're a kid. This is a movie that etched itself into me when I watched it – I just need to be in the right mood (or funk) to watch it again.

Moon. I seriously still can't believe how few people have seen Moon, even a year later. One of my friends has had my blu-ray copy for almost a year now and hasn't gotten around to watching it. This film was overlooked on every single level. Sam Rockwell deserved a nod for best actor, Duncan Jones deserved recognition as a director, and the entire production should have been nominated for best picture. If you've still somehow missed this film, you don't have the right to weigh in on the best movies of 2009.

I mentioned that I had yet to see Up in the Air when I offered my best movies of 2009. In retrospect, I wish that hadn't offered my list without seeing Up in the Air, as that film now ranks as one of my all-time favorites. Generally, any movie that makes me root for and feel bad for George Clooney is doing something right. It's a sucker punch as the audience discovers with his character that the woman he thought he could start a life with is taken.

So, after a year's worth of thought, here are my revised top five movies of 2009:

1. District 9
2. Up
3. Up in the Air
4. Where the Wild Things Are
5. Moon

As I mentioned before, I'll post my top movies of 2010 as we get closer to the Oscars. While last year's ten Oscar nominees seemed like a slight stretch (Blind Side, really?), I think we've had some fantastic films in 2010. The race for best picture is going to pit a few great movies against each other.